Australia: Two Sri Lankans have requested to the Australian High Court to have a second thought for their asylum status. The concerned members of the Tamil ethnic group had their detention in the year 2009. They were kept at Christmas Island, a detention center where boat people intending to enter the country are kept.

The case got complicated as their case was assessed by an officer from an Immigration department before asylum was rejected. Further the decision was upheld by a Federal government contractor who was working at Christmas Island. Therefore, they (applauded as M61 and M69) were deported back to Sri Lanka.

Now these Sri Lankans are requesting a lack of procedural fairness. It is due to the fact that their case was not given personal attention by the Immigration Minister. It is said that applicants who have been denied the refugee status have the freedom to file their appeals to the Immigration minister. But the final decision would be left to the Immigration minister. Contrary to that, boat people are not given the right to appeal in front of the minister.

Now these concerned people fear persecution from the Sri Lankan army, as well as other groups in paramilitary field as well as government agents. Various people in Sydney are showing their support in their case. Sending them back to their home countries means their lives would face all kinds of dangers there.

In a written statement to a question asked in Rajya Sabha, the Minister for External Affairs, Mr. S.M. Krishna said that no student has come forth with complaints. About 20 representations have been received from students by the High Commission of India which is situated in Canberra along with the Consulates General in Sydney and Melbourne. These students have been affected due to the closure of colleges. Their representations have been for their fee refunds.

At the same time, alternate placements are being offered to such international students in similar colleges or institutions. Incase, similar placements are not being offered or available or are being accepted, the students have the option of getting their money refunded. Such cases of Indian students in Australia are being addressed with the relevant Australian authorities for the relocation or for the refund of the tuition fee.

However, despite the tuition fee being refunded, many of these students have lost out on a lot. Despite being placed in a similar course in some other institution, it might not be the same. This is especially when they walked into the nation with lots of hopes and aspirations.

Above all, since the DIAC has all the rights to change the rules without any prior notification, it is highly suggested that these students are better prepared for such mishaps which are quite unfortunate. More so, the advice of an immigration consultant dealing with student visas for Australia would give a better insight for students as to how to deal with such a situation.

Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith announced a new award of $ 1 million named as Wilberforce Award to any young Australian under the age of thirty who can come up with an idea on how to control the population growth of the country. Announcing this award on Wednesday in Sydney’s financial district, he said that the contender for the award must be able to impress him with his idea which can help in improving consumption growth-obsessed economy of the country.

The population of Australia is growing by 2.1 percent every year which would double in next thirty years. If the growth of the population would continue to grow at this rate, then in next two hundred years, Australia will be having a population of one billion people. Mr. Smith is quite popular for his publicity stunts and this time he chooses beautiful blonde models and a dog to add glamour while announcing his award.

He also expressed his opinion on the issues of immigration with the press and media people. He said that he want Australia Immigration must reduce the intake of foreign nationals coming into the country every year. The intake must be cut down to seventy thousands per year from two-eighty thousands immigrants entering to the country every year. So this time he decided that he will choose to vote for that party which will promise to introduce aviation reforms.

His statements were questioned by some reporters who categorized him as being racist for making such comments. He clarified by saying that to maintain the stability within the nation, it is important to reduce the immigration within the country.

A few months ago, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) sent notices to about 147 employees to be sacked at the case processing centre. About 84 temporary employees and 63 casual workers catering to the process the immigration applications and permanent residency cards were terminated.

This month, CIC is intending to fill about 160 vacant positions. The finances catering to this funding has been apportioned for the employees to be working at the citizenship operations, centralized intake office and the permanent resident card centre in Sydney. Most of the laid off employees would now be reinstated with permanent positions.

According to the Spokesperson for CIC, Karen Shadd, the main purpose is to speed up the processing timelines as well as to cut down on the inventories at the permanent resident card centre as well as in the citizenship operations. This is also expected to cater to execution of new ministerial instructions.

Mark Eyking, the MP from Sydney-Victoria has credited the return of jobs for these sacked employees to the testimony to the Citizenship and Immigration Committee in the House of Commons. This testimony was submitted in April from the people who were concerned with the influence these lost positions would have. The committee included MPs from various political stripes. The witnesses argued on the hiring process, layoffs as well as rehiring only to add to the claims of backlog.

As and when the backlog tends to build up, the CIC bring in workers on a temporary basis to clear this backlog. As per Eyking, such a process is not good for employees as they would not be having continuous employment which results in the delay of processing.

Above all, each year, there are about 300,000 applicants with hopes of coming to Canada. And so, more efficient measures have to be taken in order to ensure that timely processing is done for these applications.

Iranian refugee Mohsen Soltani stated the story of his life, depicting that the mandatory detention spoiled his life! And now he is living with the blemishes of the time he spent at the time when he was detained.

The artist who is an applauded poet said that they ruined his life during that time and wasted four beautiful years of his life in the centers of New South Wales as well as Western Australia. Here they have compressed all his spirits.

According to reports, it was in the year 1999 when the concerned person was moved to Port Hedland detention centre in WA. But the year 2003 saw his release after he was moved to the Villawood, in Sydney’s southwest.

After getting his release, he said to a lot of people that the situation in detention centers was HELL. He told all this in a rally which was performed in the opposition of PM Julia Gillard who proposed to come out with an altogether asylum center. The banners were geared with all sorts of slogans like “Refugees are Invited here.”

Mr. Soltani went on to say that the proposal of the new Prime Minister says states that her policies are same with that of previous Prime Minister as well as the Immigration Minister. It was earlier announced by the Prime Minister that East Timor would be the new place for new detention centre. He said that they are not willing to repeat the history of making the lives hell for people to under the mandatory detention procedures.

July 9 is a big day for certain visa holders, for, on this day Australia celebrates Constitution Day, where new citizens are welcomed or awarded Australian citizenship. This is the day when Queen Victoria gave her royal assent to the Constitution of Australia. Thus, Constitution Day is the occasion when the nation celebrates its creation.

Every year, when 9th of July is celebrated as Constitution Day by the whole nation, the Australian immigration department marks the day as the perfect occasion to welcome new Oz citizens. Today is this especial day where as part of the occasion, many ceremonies are taking place to welcome Australian visa holders as new citizens.

According to a spokesperson for the Australian Immigration Department, the Constitution Day is one of the nation’s most important days. It has also importance because of the fact that on this day the nation welcomes new citizens who are the prospective contributors to the Australian economy and community.

This year, Australia is going to acknowledge a total of 500 new citizens from seventy nations across the globe in a number of ceremonies across Australia. The ceremonies on Constitution Day have been giving new entrants the opportunities to be proud of being Australians and likewise, this year’s ceremonies are going to give the nation’s newest citizens an opportunity to acknowledge their citizenship in one of the most friendly and welcoming nations in the world. Several ceremonies on Constitution Day are going to take place in prominent cities like Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane.

Australia has always been a great place to be in. If you are planning to immigrate to the nation, it is advised to seek the professional help of an Immigration and Visa Consultant!

Of late, Melbourne has emerged as the hot favorite destination among tourists who come to the land of Kangaroos. The city has outdone the most popular Australian city. According to the figures released for the 12 months to March this year, by the Tourism Australia, over the last ten years, Melbourne’s interstate visitor numbers plummeted by 22 percent, which made up over 4 million tourists to the city in a year.

On the other hand, Sydney’s tourist numbers went down 15 per cent to make it 3.3 million a year. Even though Melbourne has defeated Sydney with its numbers of tourists, the latter still remains the bigger tourism market, especially when it comes to international tourists.

Last year which ended April 2010, around 5.7 million foreign tourists visited the land of Kangaroos. The figure is an increase of 2 per cent from the previous year. Australia has always emerged a popular tourist destination. The Oz cities like Sydney and Melbourne are some of those cities that attract some of the biggest tourist crowds that visit the nation every year. Australia has an endless numbers of tourist attractions. People across the globe visit the land of Kangaroos for a number of reasons. Apart from tourists, overseas people also find Australia as one of the favorite destinations to immigrate. The nation is in the league with the likes of the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, where majority of the world immigrant population go and settle there.

If you are one of those who have been planning to immigrate to Australia, contact an Immigrant and Visa Consultant!

While Australia’s politicians in the big cities are saying that the nation is left with no job vacancies, the most populous Australian state, New South Wales still needs a huge number of workers. In the recent annual conference of the National Party, the Nationals’ chief said that various regions of New South Wales require a total of 500,0000 workers altogether.

The chief of the Nationals Party, Andrew Stoner completely opposes his fellow politicians who say that the nation is full, with no requirement of workers. There are still regions in New South Wales that need workers to fill the vacancies. In particular, the regions in the west of the state require more people.

Stoner while revealing the Nationals Party’s population strategy at the conference in Tamworth expressed that his party wants New South Wales gain population by 470,000 over the next twenty-five years. Apart from increasing the population of the regional New South Wales, the strategy also included plans to implement measures like perks, improved services, as well as employment opportunities to make the regions of the state more attractive for living. One such measure is to offer Regional Relocation Grants to those who move from Sydney. He also said that the regional New South Wales wants increased population, but this does not mean that it needs only quantity, quality that is skill as well.

Of late, Australia Prime minister Julia Gillard declared that she does not want a bigger population, through migration, but skilled workers. However, she would not like to see businesses suffering from skill shortages, but, at the same time she does not like the nation’s youth to suffer from unemployment because of the migrants. The solution to the situation of population burden in cities, according to Stoner, is to generate employment opportunities in regional areas of Australia, which would attract people, thereby reducing the stress in big cities.

Motekiai Taufahema, a convict of killing Glenn McEnally, a Sydney senior police constable has had his visa cancelled, thanks to the Australian immigration minister Chris Evans, and is due to be deported. The convicted has killed the police in the year 2002 and currently he has been serving jail sentence of eleven years. The Australian immigration minister has ruled that Taufahema will be removed when his jail term ends. According to reports, he is completing his term in March 2012.

The accused hails from Tongan, where he will be deported to at the end of the jail term. It is being said that with the cancellation of his visa, Chris Evans has used his special powers. Reportedly, immigration officials had earlier tried to cancel his visa, but it was knock down on appeal. Eventually, the immigration minister had to use his discretionary authority to cancel Motekiai Taufahema’s visa.

Australian immigration minister said that it is very important to deport the convicted from the country for sake of its community. Taufahema’s has committed a serious crime- manslaughtering a cop while he was performing his duties. Australia cannot let this man stay in. The immigration minister’s decision has been applauded by many, including Scott Webber, the New South Wales Police Association’s president.

The decision is being appreciated by people, since it makes clears that the manslaughter, who is a treat to the general community, will not be free to roam in the streets of Australia anymore. People are happy to have Chris Evans using his discretionary powers in this case.

Today the world has become truly global and students from developing countries like India and China prefers to go abroad for further education. There, they receive immense exposure to different culture and education in a holistic manner. With the growing time, the population of overseas students in foreign countries is growing in a fast pace.

Australia is one such developed nation, where many students (around 80,000) from India are settled to pursue their further studies. Despite, that Australia’s education is quite expensive for Indian students, they still go for it to receive the best education.

But recent changes made by the Australia in their Immigration laws have erected a wall between Indian students and their dreams. To counter this problem, India has planned to express it’s disapproval by protesting the sudden changes made by them in the migration policy. The new policies would be affecting the future of around 80,000 Indian students, studying there.

Recently, issues of racial discrimination were the major cause of worry for Indian students but now another feather has been added to their list of problems. The implementation of the new policy would be from July1 onwards. Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde would be visiting Sydney to discuss this issue with Australian Government. In an interview, he has expressed that our intent is definitely not to oppose the rule but to initiate a dialogue with them to resolve this problem in mutual interest of both.

Indian students have paid a lot for their education in Australia and now they have to face all these inconveniences for no fault of their own. The Indian government is trying its best and taking all the necessary measure to ensure the well being of Indian students in Australia. There are more than five lakh students (from foreign countries) in Australia out of which major population comes from India and china. And the future of all these students could suffer if this policy would come into effect from July onwards.